Happily "Stuck" in Antigua

After two and a half months of bouncing from place to place, Emi and I are finding it quite difficult to move on out of Antigua, Guatemala. The city is a beautiful colonial city that is just FULL of travelors, shops, and amazing food at every corner. We even found a legit spa!!! Our first day here, Emi and I booked a couple's massage, a mani/pedi, AND a hair style/deep conditioning for less than $100 each! SO amazing. Neither of us had ever had a couple's massage before. It was definitely an interesting and entertaining experience.
We have managed to befriend an incredibly benevolent and interesting guy from Texas, named Blake (also known as shot-glass chucker's buddy) - don't worry he knows shot glasses are made for drinking not throwing desbite his buddy's shenanigans. Blake has been a wonderful tour guide! He actually works for one of the travel agencies in town that is a more modern and up to date than many of the other agencies. They sell a lot of gear that you might find at REI like Northface bags, Nalgene water bottles, and CLIFF bars! These things are an incredibly rare find anywhere in Central America let alone Guatemala. A couple days ago he let us tag along on a rock climbing adventure! MAN was that an adventure indeed. We drove about an hour to a mountain that came to be from underground pressure that actually pushed the ground up. The rock that we climbed is all sedementary rock that goes straight up. However, one of the volcanoes (Pacaya) erupted last May 27th and sent mud toward this rock that actually allowed all of these plants to grow directly on top of rocks. It was really bizzare! We had to do some intense jungle tredding to get to the particular rocks that we were set to climb. I have never rock climbed outdoors - it was really exciting! We also went with two English boys who are two of the funniest people I think I have ever met. So, this made for a seriously entertaining rock climbing experience. To make things even more interesting though, I got stung by an asp caterpillar on my left hand! I reached my hand into my backpack to grab my waterbottle and then saw this tiny, itty bitty neon yellow caterpillar just chilling on the inside of my zipper. Directly after I saw the caterpillar, my hand began to tingle sharply as if it had fallen asleep. The sting rapdily turned into a burn, until it was on FIRE. Blake jumped into action and sprayed some kind of anesthetic on it right away while Sam (funny English bloke) worked on getting the caterpillar out of my bag. As it turns out, I had mashed the caterpillar into my zipper when I opened my bag and it attacked me defensively. As time went on my hand swelled up and looked like a little micky mouse hand - YOUCH! Blake was so wonderful though, he went and got me medicine from the pharmacy and checks it every chance he has to make sure I don't have to get it removed or anything. Now, two days later, the swelling is still existent, but has got down tremendously and it doesn't hurt at all anymore. Pesky little caterpillar!
Yesterday Emi and I rented bikes from Blake's agency and he took us riding all around the area. Antigua really is a gorgeous city. Every city in Antigua must have four things in order to be a city legally; a church, a cross, a water source, and a town square. Really interesting how you can relly find each of these things present in every city you go to. We also went to one of the biggest organic farms in the area. It was really awesome! We got to walk around and try several of the vegetables and herbs. We even ate edible flowers that taste like cucumbers - WOW! The best part though was that Alex, the owner of the farm, gave us a lime that is the size of a baby's head! REALLY, it was huge. We took it to a restaurant in town and they made lime-ades for us that were AWESOME! Way more refreshing and yummy than I thought they were going to be, I must admit.
Last night was ladies night at a local bar in town (every night is ladies night somewhere). But we got free tee shirts that are awesome! The best ladies night so far though, was Wednesday night at our hostel. We have met so many awesome Europeans and they were ALL together at this particular ladies night. Everyone who wore a dress received drinks for like $.75. So, the guys ALL wore dresses! LOL - it was really hilarious. The hostel has a big bag of dresses that you can just rifle through to find the most embarassing or beautiful. Darius though, definitely had the best attire. He is a tall German who looked amazing adorned in lingerie and feathers. HAHA - I heart Antigua!
HMMMM now Emi and I have been sucked into the tattoo parlor... EEK! What that means for me, I am not too sure. I may be able to keep my addiction in check for now, but you really never know. Emi, however, is pretty set on an addition to her existing tribute to her Grandparents. She has an appointment today to check out the artist's drawing. I predict she will love it. We are headed there AFTER our giant breakfast and tour at the macadamia nut farm.... have I mentioned that I heart Antigua yet???